Kaltaia Rainwood
Illidari Kaltaia was once Kaltaia Blacksun (née Rainwood), bastard-born daughter of Raynor Rainwood, co-Patriarch of the House of Rainwood in the Dawnspire. Lost Heiress Raynor was a hypocrite of the finest sort, having inherited both his family’s holier-than-thou arrogance for who they deemed ‘worthy’ in the social echelons of Quel’thalas and also their penchant for sleeping around, leaving children in their wake. Raynor never had a child in wedlock, nor did he ever marry. By all Thalassian rights and privileges Kaltaia ought to have been his heir as the eldest of all of his children. Kaltaia spent most of her life living across the harbor from her rightful seat at Rainhall, instead forced to live on the mediocre spire mage’s salary of her mother-- Avarien Dawnflare. Despite her lack of social status, Avarien’s greatest wish in life was to ascend the echelons and land herself among Thalassian Peerage. It was one of the great reasons for her rendezvous with Raynor - apart from his beauty, of course. When Raynor left her with Kaltaia, she knew she would have a jackpot on her hands if she played her cards right. So began Kaltaia’s life ambition: take the crown of sea-stained oak at Rainhall, and accomplish this by becoming too powerful to say no to. Kaltaia started training in melee combat when she was but ten years old with Knights that were garrisoned in Sundial Anchorage. Her mother’s status as a war veteran earned Kaltaia that right. Her mornings were spent learning how to attack and defend herself with weapons of any sort and her evenings concluded with home-schooled lessons in the Arcane from her mother. Avarien believed that Kaltaia could earn herself a Knighthood if she was a skilled enough soldier. House of Warriors When she was twenty years old, Avarien Dawnflare invoked a debt that the fearsome matriarch of House Blacksun owed to her and demanded a Blacksun education for her daughter. Lady Idrya acquiesced and sent one of her sons - Lysanthir Blacksun. Avarien could have gotten a more skilled mentor for Kaltaia if she had demanded his sister Ellasha instead, but her ignorance of Blacksun's matriarchal ways cost her. Lysanthir Blacksun and Kaltaia Rainwood hated each other when they first met, but they had a roaring sexual chemistry and immediately launched into a rivals-with-benefits situation. Over the years of their training and wars fought together, they came to grow into friends, and confidantes, and at last husband and wife. Kaltaia’s mother approved - Blacksun was a more prestigious name than Dawnflare, and by the gods did Kaltaia earn the right to use that surname. As a veteran of countless troll skirmishes and both the Second and Third Wars, she was a force of nature on the battlefield with her swordplay and fire magic, and earned a colloquial title "of the Wildfire" for her prowess. The Dark Portal Lysanthir and Kaltaia Blacksun followed Prince Kael’thas through the Dark Portal. The Prince’s ideology appealed to Kaltaia on a deeply personal level: achieve greatness at whatever cost necessary. After Illidan retreated to Outland following the brutal war in the Frozen Wastes, Kael’thas committed some of the blood elves to his cause to be trained as Demon Hunters. Kaltaia bought into this completely and convinced herself that it fit in perfectly with her goal to become the Lady of Rainhall. However, Lysanthir had deeply-seated reservations, having not been blinded by a lifetime of being brain-washed by a mother’s ambition. It created a rift between them but there was no power in the universe that would have Lysanthir happily waving goodbye to Kaltaia as she enters the Illidari, and so he begrudgingly joined her. It proved to be the biggest mistake of his life. The one that cost him his life. Perhaps it was his reservations or simply an incompatibility of spirit, but the demon bound to his soul killed him. “Devastated” is too kind of a word for how deeply and profoundly his loss affected Kaltaia, especially since the training had distanced them on account of their ideological clash and that she felt responsible for bringing him into it. Rather than wish for death to take her, too, Kaltaia fought harder to live, driven by what she perceived to be a sacrifice on Lysanthir’s part. She would not let his death be in vain; she took more from her demon than what it wanted to give. Mardum She had fought like a wildfire against the demons on the hellish planet of Mardum, but she was taken down by one of their inquisitors and imprisoned in one of the camps along with a handful of other Illidari. There was a rescue mission as Mardum received more Illidari reinforcements, and one of these was the Demon Hunter Asteryn Truefeather. It was not easy for Asteryn to overpower the Inquisitor that held Kaltaia, but she managed to accomplish it and when she came to release Kaltaia’s shackles, she recognized her as one of the Rainwood bastard-brood. Even after all that corruption and time. Kaltaia similarly recognized Asteryn as one of the House of Truefeather - the family that Rainwood is vassal to. Last she had heard, Felthier Truefeather died during Arthas’ invasion and Telchis Truefeather had disappeared from the Black Temple - he was likely dead. She was saved on Mardum by her liege. Kaltaia had an opportunity to get close to the blood of the Dawnspire and took it. Feigning some speech about honor and life debt, Kaltaia pledged her eternal servitude to Asteryn as vassal and protector in return for saving her life. Category:Characters Category:Cabal of the Dying Sun